Yuga Labs acquires CryptoPunks and Meebits intellectual property

Yuga Labs, the company behind one of the biggest and most valuable NFT collections in the industry, the Bored Ape Yacht Club, announced Friday that it has bought the rights to the intellectual property of the other two most popular collections – CryptoPunks and Meebits – from Larva Labs.

Yuga Labs announced Friday that it acquired the intellectual property rights of CryptoPunks and Meebits NFT collections from Larva Labs.

“This means that we now own the brands, copyright in the art, and other IP rights for both collections, along with 423 CryptoPunks and 1711 Meebits,” said the press release, adding that “the first thing we’re doing is giving full commercial rights to the NFT holders.”

This means CryptoPunks and Meebits holders will be granted the same rights as holders of Yuga Labs’ existing collections. It’s currently working with its legal team to draft new terms and conditions for the holders of CryptoPunks and Meebits.

“By handing over these rights, we’re further aligning CryptoPunks and Meebits with the web3 ethos, and we expect a wide-range of third-party developers and community creators to incorporate CryptoPunks and Meebits into their web3 projects. We’ll be building the overall brand right alongside them,” said in the announcement.

However, CryptoPunks and Meebits won’t necessarily take on the “club” model that BAYC utilizes. Yuga said BAYC will continue to be the central project, while CryptoPunks is a “historic” collection. Indeed, CryptoPunks was one of the first major NFT collections to gain broader attention. Yuga Labs will, however, look to add utility to the CryptoPunks and Meebits collections.

Matt Hall and John Watkinson, Larva Labs founders and the creators of the CryptoPunks and Meebits collections, will remain at Larva Labs. They called Yuga the “ideal stewards” for their early projects to continue as “vital, thriving projects in the emerging decentralized web.”

Meanwhile, Yuga Labs stressed in its announcement that its focus will remain on the Apes. “To be clear: the BAYC ecosystem will remain the center of our universe,” the company tweeted. “We believe that what’s good for Punks is good for Apes and the rest of the space. Likewise, what’s good for Apes is good for Punks. We want to grow the pie, not fight over slices.”

According to CoinGecko data, Bored Apes and CryptoPunks are the two highest-value collections by market capitalization and floor price.